When it comes to movies, we\u2019re not talking about installments of \u201cThe Avengers.\u201d He learned English by watching movies like \u201cLincoln\u201d and \u201cAmistad.\u201d During COVID, he visited the prison where \u201cThe Shawshank Redemption\u201d was filmed during the week of the Memorial. When Golf.com\u2019s Sean Zak interviewed him back in 2021<\/a> and asked what he\u2019d been watching recently, Hovland mentioned \u201cThe Experiment,\u201d a movie based on the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, where guards and prisoners can see each other at all times. <\/p>\n \u201cThey just go crazy after a while,\u201d Hovland said. <\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what Hovland thinks about classics like \u201cThe Godfather\u201d or \u201cApocalypse Now,\u201d but I thought about him recently when actor Robert Duvall passed away. <\/p>\n Duvall had very little connection to golf. He made one golf movie during his career \u2014 \u201cSeven Days in Utopia,\u201d a film that was widely panned<\/a> \u2014 and he had little interest in the game. He told the L.A. Times in 2011 that he played some golf as a younger actor, but he didn\u2019t love it because it took too long. Duvall accepted the role in the film, despite its limited budget, because he liked elements of the script. His character, an eccentric, aging Texas rancher, mentors a talented, young golfer, offering spiritual and life lessons. I\u2019m not joking when I tell you that real-life golfer K.J. Choi is the villain in the film. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n It was not \u201cSeven Days in Utopia\u201d that made me think of Hovland, however. It was a clip of Duvall talking about director Stanley Kubrick during an actors’ forum hosted by The Hollywood Reporter several years ago. The clip was reshared widely after Duvall passed away at age 95. <\/p>\n At the beginning of the clip<\/a>, actor Jesse Eisenberg is talking about his performance in \u201cThe Social Network\u201d and what it was like to work with director David Fincher. Eisenberg shares that it took him a bit to understand that Fincher \u2014 arguably the best director of his generation \u2014 often required 50 takes from an actor just to get two usable ones. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible experience,\u201d Eisenberg said. <\/p>\n Duvall, sitting across the table, looks baffled. At one point during the clip, he turns to Ryan Gosling and gestures like he cannot believe what he\u2019s hearing. <\/p>\n \u201cCan I say one thing?\u201d Duvall eventually interjects. \u201cTo me, the great Stanley Kubrick was an actor\u2019s enemy. I can point to movies that he\u2019s done with the worst performances I\u2019ve ever seen by actors in his movies. \u2018The Shining.\u2019 \u2018Clockwork Orange.\u2019 Terrible performance. Maybe great movies, but terrible performances. How does he know the difference between the first take and the 70th take? What is that about? \u2026 I don\u2019t want to be judgemental, maybe it was good for you, but I don\u2019t quite get that.\u201d <\/p>\n When I watched Hovland hit balls this week on the range at Riviera Country Club<\/a> \u2014 with the assistance of yet another training aid \u2014 it made me wonder if he might be the golfing equivalent of Kubrick. <\/p>\n {{inline-course}}<\/p>\n There is unquestionable genius there, but in order to tap into it, he can\u2019t help but flirt with madness. This week, he was wrapping an elastic yellow band around his body<\/a>, trying to keep his arms wide in his backswing. At Pebble Beach, he was wearing pool floaties on his arms<\/a>, like a toddler learning how to swim. At the Ryder Cup, he was spotted wearing a GBox<\/a>, a training aid developed by instructor George Gankas, designed to help with rotation. He told teammate Shane Lowry it led to his \u201cbest range session in years.\u201d<\/p>\n The thing about Hovland is, there is always a training aid whispering in his ear. If it\u2019s not a training aid, it\u2019s a new instructor. Or a YouTube clip. He cannot stop tinkering. Sometimes it works, as it did Thursday at Riviera. He shot 2 under in tough conditions and was happy to expound on training aids after his round. <\/p>\n \u201cYou might have seen the band drill that I was messing around with,\u201d Hovland said. \u201cIt\u2019s still trying to serve the same purpose [as the pool floaties]. But I felt like that actually made it easier for me to find something tangible I could take out onto the course. Trying to just get a little wider in the downswing. Not trying to pull my arms close to me. That\u2019s what the floaties were for, trying to get some space in the downswing. It was just hard to feel that when I took the floaties away. We\u2019re not quite there yet, even though this was a great round of golf. That was a huge step in the right direction.\u201d <\/p>\n Urban legend has it that Kubrick required 148 takes to get one scene right in \u201cThe Shining.\u201d Supposedly, he made Tom Cruise walk through a doorway 90 different times for a scene in \u201cEyes Wide Shut.\u201d For a certain kind of genius, that\u2019s part of the process. I have no idea if Bryson DeChambeau has seen many Kubrick films, but he often feels driven by similar obsessions that flirt with the razor\u2019s edge of madness. <\/p>\n There is probably a bit of Duvall in Scottie Scheffler. Nothing flashy, nothing twitchy, just restrained intensity and consistency that, over time, hardens into gravitas. Every week, Scheffler works on maintaining his grip while Hovland chases a perfection that never seems sustainable. <\/p>\n I am grateful I get to be an observer of both.<\/p>\n I just hope Hovland, like the prisoners in the Stanford Experiment, doesn\u2019t go crazy after awhile with all of us watching.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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